I don’t mind if people celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with their preferred adult beverage, even though I don’t drink that much myself. I always celebrate with my favorite green item. If you are looking for something to do on St. Patrick’s Day, and you are near the Dallas area, below is information about an event I was invited to on Facebook:

“We come in peace, but we’re pissed.

As we had previously announced, DFW NORML planned to participate in the Dallas St. Patrick’s Day festivities by entering our 420 Truth Car & Hydro the NORML Boat in the parade. The goal? Raise awareness about marijuana prohibition in a unique, positive way to help further the discussion both legislatively and locally. We filed our application early and waited.

Unfortunately the Greenville Avenue Area Business Association decided to decline our request. It’s interesting to note that Budweiser, Bud Light and Monster Energy Drink are sponsors this year, despite statements that the event would be “family friendly” with “less of a focus on drinking.” For many of us, DFW NORML is more than volunteering, it’s a family working towards a change for all of us. To be discriminated against like this is something that we simply must protest.

People have literally flooded the GAABA Facebook and event pages with words of support for us. Because of this injustice, we’ve decided to host a peaceful protest during the event. The idea being that by standing together, as a large group of NORML tax-paying, law-abiding, voting citizens, we can attempt to raise the awareness we’d hoped to raise in the first place. Our new goal is to make our presence known without disrupting the parade for people simply trying to enjoy the event. We’ll have free information to pass out and we’ll interact with everyone we can, but remember that protests are only a right when peaceful. We want to represent this cause respectfully and effectively, so everybody please be cool.

The parade officially starts at 11:00am, so we’re rallying at 9:00am at the Lovers Lane DART Station. As of now, we have over 65 people RSVP’d on Facebook. Imagine the impact we could have if hundreds of us show up. Ironically, by denying us the right to partake in the parade, we’re getting more media attention than probably would have had they just included us. The Dallas Observer wrote an article about it and we’ve contacted the local media to hopefully get some coverage. We’ve done everything we can and now we need you.

So please, on behalf of the Texas effort to end cannabis prohibition, join us for a NORML St. Paddies Day Protest. Let’s show the world just how green DFW really is.

Have a plan for parking, it’s going to be a busy day so either bring change for meters or cash for lots. Don’t let parking be the reason your voice isn’t heard.”